Chatting With Megan Fox About Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

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Are you ready for some Turtle Power? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is being released on August 8th in Real D 3D and I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with one of the fabulous stars of the film Megan Fox. She is one hot mama and she does a great job in the film. Considering she was pregnant during the shooting of it.

Here is what Megan had to say when we got to chat with her:

Were you a big fan of The Ninja Turtles growing up?

MEGAN:

I was. I have any older sister. She’s 12 years older so I think I was about four or five when I saw, well the first one I actually saw was Secret of the Ooze which was the second one, which was the sequel. We had the VHS tapes. I was raised Pentecostal Christian which is really like a very strict denomination of Christianity and for some reason my mom let watch these movies and I don’t know why cause usually you’re not allowed to watch television at all. I got to see that and I got to see Arachnophobia for some reason. I’m going to be traumatized forever by that movie. I was a huge fan and of course I wanted to be like my sister so I loved it because she loved it but then as I continued watching it as I got older, I just genuinely became a fan. So they’ve been talking about remaking this movie for a long time and finally it sort of came into fruition and then I got in for a meeting, and I just fired off tons of emails. Afterwards, basically begging to be in the movie because the character’s sort of this very like ambitious, um ambitious journalist type and I knew when that you say those words you don’t necessarily think of me so I was going to have to fight for it. And so I sent just a bunch of emails saying please, please let me do it. You’re not going to find someone that’s a bigger fan so just give me the chance based on that. And so, yes, I was a fan.

You got pregnant while filming right?

MEGAN:

I got pregnant 10 days I think into filming this. I don’t even know. The two times Brian has gotten here are the two times that I’ve gotten pregnant. There’s no time after you have the first baby so I don’t even know how this one happened. So I was only, I wasn’t even quite seven months post partum when I got pregnant again. And you know this is an action movie so there are a lot of stunts. We were filming in New York City in the Summer. It’s hot. I’m assuming all of you have been pregnant at some point and you know during your first trimester all you want to do is just like watch Bravo and lay in bed and you don’t want to get up and do stuff. I was waking up and I working 18 – 19 hour days to get this done because the movie that we shot, aside from the turtles, it’s me and the turtles and so I was in every scene and they needed me. And you know when you’re making a movie that’s the one thing about filmmaking is that you can’t call in sick or you can’t say like ‘oh my kid has a fever’ or ‘I can’t come in today,’ because when you shut down production for a day, that’s one to three million dollars that’s a loss. And so you have to just make it work. So I was nauseous and I was sick and I was overheating. We would have scenes where we were outside and I was wearing a ridiculous leather jacket and leather boots and I’m like covered from head to toe and so then in-between takes they would pull me and they were a team of like seven people that would be ripping my clothes off as soon as they called cut and be putting ice backs all over me. Your temperature is not supposed to get up I believe it’s like 101 at that point. It’s dangerous. I’m doing all this research and I’m like ‘oh my god I’m at risk for a low birth weight baby’ and you know cause you’re so worried in your first trimester and you’re in these sort of extreme conditions and so it was hard. It was emotionally hard and it was physically hard, but it is what it is. I signed up to make a movie and I can’t be like ‘sorry guys, I got pregnant. I’m going to go home now.’ You’ve already spent millions of dollars. But we made it work and I did it, and my son was enormous. He wasn’t enormous; he was just two pounds bigger than my first baby, so he was big in comparison. So nothing happened. Everyone is safe and healthy and he was fine! The other thing is in Hollywood, you don’t want to show weakness as a woman because it is such a misogynist industry to ever go to work and be like ‘I have debilitating cramps,’ you can’t do that. You can’t be like ‘can I have a hot water bottle for my stomach.’ You have to act like you’re a super hero in order to be taken seriously or put on an equal playing field as the men. As soon as you like have a woman’s body and have women’s issues, it’s like oh you’re a hazard for us basically. So you just have to pretend that you’re a lot stronger than you are a lot of the time.

Did you find that when you first started did you kind of know that coming in?

MEGAN:

I didn’t. I mean I was a kid. I was 18. I think I was 19 when I filmed Transformers. I had no idea. It’s something I sort of discovered because I was always sort of taken aback by the lack of empathy for women and the things that we go through and the things that we may need that are different or even just the fact that like, we actresses, do get paid a lot less than male actors get paid. There is that issue in Hollywood as well and so…and Hollywood is run by men still. There are a few female executives but for the most part it’s all men, middle aged and a little older, at this point. And now there is a new generation of younger guys coming in and younger women. So it’s all going to change hopefully, but as of right now there are these still archaic practices going on and I wasn’t aware of it. And as I have gotten older, I’ve become more aware. As I have become a mom, now it’s like glaring at me and I see and understand and it’s like when Buddha came to realize that life is suffering, and then you transcend and you reach Nirvana and it’s like that’s just what this industry is. I embrace it and give it love and we move on and that’s just what it is. I used to think that I was a Joan of Arc and I could fight against it but you can’t be a one woman army in this situation, and it sort of became what I saw as being courageous and these things that I thought were assets to me were actually becoming detriments because I wasn’t controlling them and channeling them properly. And I’ve just had to learn to temper myself as I’ve gotten older and know that I’m not going to lead a mutiny or a revolution on my own. It has to be gradual. It’s not going to be something that’s over night and so you just have to let it be for now.

How has motherhood changed what projects you pick from now on?

MEGAN:

It does. I’ve never…I’ve always only made like one or two movies a year because I’ve never been ambitious and I’ve never been really career oriented. It’s always something that I do, as a lot of other people do, to pay bills and that’s how you make your money. And it’s not like…I don’t feel like my ego is wrapped up into it and I don’t feel like it’s necessarily where my heart is at all, and so now that I have kids and I feel like I do know where my heart is obviously, it’s about getting up the nerve to work because I hate leaving and it’s really difficult. Noah was six months when I left to make this movie, and he came with me obviously, and Brian was with me so Brian was with him most of the time because the whole first part of his life, I was really afraid to hire help. I like just didn’t want to have to do that and so Brian was taking care of him while I was at work. But when you’re on set for 16 hours, you don’t want to stick a baby in a trailer for 16 hours. You want them to be able to go to gymnastics class or music class and you don’t get to go with them so there are things you miss. And luckily I was there; he started crawling the day after my birthday and it was a weekend so I saw it. I didn’t miss that, but you know those are the things when you go to work and you’re leaving you’re afraid you’re going to miss or afraid they’re going to feel rejected cause you’re not there. So, really about the projects, you know, I haven’t even been faced with like, ‘oh would I portray that type of character, I’m afraid my son will see it.’ Right now, it’s just about like I can’t be away from the house for that long. I can’t take it. I had to do reshoots when I was five weeks post partum with Bodie, and that was awful cause you’re breastfeeding and you’re like how can I do this? This is the time where you are supposed to just be and you have this little nest and you go from your bed to your rocking chair and back to your bed. And your boobs are out all day. It’s just what you do. And how do you go from that into making a movie again where you’re on set for all these hours; so it’s really jarring and hard. It’s hard to be a working mom. I haven’t experienced it obviously with any other type of jobs, but all I can talk about is being an actress and it’s hard. And so for me, it’s just gonna be about time. Like, ideally I would like a project where I’m part of an ensemble cast so I can shoot out in less than 20 days. But like this was months and months, all day every day and I’m proud of it and happy I got to be a part of it but it’s hard and you’re so torn it’s just you’re torn in having to have a career and also be a mom. It’s really hard.

What kind of advice can you give to like young girls that may be experiencing any type of low Interviewer self esteem issues?

MEGAN:

I mean it’s hard when you’re young. You’re just going to go through that. When you’re young, you’re also dealing with hormones and that is a whole battle in it of itself. I know that just from being post partum. And like you turn into a different human being for a minute and there’s nothing that can be done about it. So a part of growing up is dealing with that, and you’re going to suffer through some low self esteem, but I feel it’s hard to encourage a teenager to be in touch with their higher self because they don’t understand what that is yet and maybe they’re not supposed to. But if you have a voice inside yourself and you feel like you understand what is right and what is wrong, all I can say is don’t be afraid to follow what you know is right and understand that not everyone is going to like you all of the time, most definitely not. It’s not going to happen. What I experienced in school and all the negativity I received and the gossip and the slander that you experience in that sort of nucleus of middle school and high school that sort of…I appreciate that now because it trained me for what I do. I mean, I experience that on a global scale every day, someone saying something that isn’t true or saying something that’s negative or hurtful or whatever, constantly trying to tear you down. And so, it trained me and it gave me…it provided me with a lot of tools I feel like. It provided me with patience and the ability to withstand things like this. And so I think if kids can just look at it and go this is only for this moment, and if I can look at it almost like I’m reading an instruction manual, like I’m putting these things into practice, these are things for me to learn that are going to be beneficial for me as an adult. And they’ll never understand that now because I would have never understood that when I was 14, but all I can say is that it is not all negative; you can use it for positive and just trust that and it’ll make sense to you when you’re in your 20’s or 30’s. Hopefully.

I know you said you’re sort of hoping to not work all the time, and it’s hard to leave the house, I think we can all relate. But do you have any projects you’d love to do?

MEGAN:

I’m not just saying this because this movie is coming out; this really was a dream job for me because it was probably the biggest fan girl experience I’ve ever had. They’re already making the new Star Wars; I would geek out to be a part of that, but they’re already doing that. And then, I’ve always said I wouldn’t want to be in a new Jurassic Park because I wouldn’t want to like…because I don’t watch what I’m in; it’s hard for me to watch. And if I do watch, like I watch this movie, I do disassociate in a way where I don’t really take the movie in cause you’re constantly like’ why didn’t someone fix my hair? Why did they let me say that like that? That didn’t work.’ And so you don’t enjoy the movie, but I do think I would actually love, especially if Spielberg was directing, obviously, anyone would love to be in a Jurassic Park movie. But, I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen.

After we chatted she was kind enough to take a group shot with her. She was super nice and chatting with her has made me even more excited to see the film.

The city needs heroes.  Darkness has settled over New York City as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan have an iron grip on everything from the police to the politicians.  The future is grim until four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The Turtles must work with fearless reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox) and her wise-cracking cameraman Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett) to save the city and unravel Shredder’s diabolical plan.  Based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Characters Created by PETER LAIRD and KEVIN EASTMAN with a Screenplay by JOSH APPELBAUM & ANDRÉ NEMEC and EVAN DAUGHERTY, Producer MICHAEL BAY (the blockbuster Transformers franchise) and director JONATHAN LIEBESMAN (Wrath of the Titans) bring Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the popular franchise that has captivated audiences of all ages for decades, into the 21^st century.

In Theaters August 8th! For more info on the film visit:

Turtle Reveal: http://www.turtlereveal.com/
Official Tumblr: http://tmntmovie.tumblr.com/
Official Site: http://www.teenagemutantninjaturtlesmovie.com
Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/tmntmovie
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TMNT
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/TMNTmovie